1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
Federal News Network presents a daily update of important moments in the history of the U.S. government.
In response to the British Parliament’s enactment of the Coercive Acts in the American colonies, the first session of the Continental Congress convened at Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia on Sept. 5, 1774. Fifty-six delegates from all the colonies except Georgia drafted a declaration of rights and grievances and elected Peyton Randolph of Virginia as the first president of Congress. Patrick Henry, George Washington, John Adams, and John Jay were among the delegates. The first major American opposition to British policy came in 1765 when colonists convened the Stamp Act Congress in October 1765 to vocalize their opposition to the law. After militant Patriots in Massachusetts organized the Boston Tea Party in 1773, Parliament enacted the Coercive Acts, or the Intolerable Acts, in 1774. These closed Boston to merchant shipping, established formal British military rule in Massachusetts, made British officials immune to criminal prosecution in America, and required colonists to quarter British troops. In response, colonists called the first Continental Congress to consider a united American resistance to the British.
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